North Cascades - Day 3

Sunday, August 31 -- As usual, I forgot the nuances of downloading photos and resizing them for insertion in the blog, so I missed a few photos yesterday which I am starting off with today.  If you read yesterday I mentioned we stopped in Cashmere before reaching Chelan.  Here are a couple of photos from that stop.

The Aplets and Cotlets factory store.

Early waterwheel harnessing the Wenatchee River.

Pioneer Village, part of the Historical Museum.

Map of Cashmere.

Also, last night we saw a rather unusual sky.

Three lines (?) of clouds.

Our destination for today is Stehekin,  at the northern end of Lake Chelan, and within the Lake Chelan National Recreation Area (center of th e photo below)

A model of the Stehekin Valley (to the left of the blue lake).

After getting up this morning and walking around Chelan (awaiting for the Riverwalk Cafe to open for breakfast), we drove to Field's Point Landing, about 10 miles up the lake to catch the ferry that would take us to Stehekin.  Cabins, vacation homes and boat docks were tucked in along the shore line all the way to Field's Point.  (Day trippers and most tourists never get out of Chelan - the serious lake goers travel further up the lake.)  We arrived almost 2 hours early and had to wait to buy a parking pass and to board the ferry.  We took our bicycles to Stehekin and limited clothing.  We also had groceries for the four days.  

The ferry just after its "down lake" journey.

Underway at 1:00 pm.

One of the views to the shoreline and rather barren hillsides.

Wake boarding recreation on the lower lake.

We headed into the mountains, with increasing trees, but later there was evidence of past wildfires.

A chute, where rock, mud slides have occurred - maybe recently since the scarring looked fresh.

The Devils Kitchen.

Stehekin Valley in the foreground, glacier behind.

Docking in Stehekin.

The ferry.

Arrival.

Our hostess (Jeanetta) for the Stehekin Creekside Cabin met us at the dock, and gladly transported all of luggage and food stuffs to the cabin.  But she was a bit surprised that we had bicycles.  She told us it was a 5+ mile ride to the cabin, with two uphills (undulating), and the last mile was on gravel.  "But, if you are good shape you will make it no problem."  It was an orientation ride for us.  We passed the famous bakery at mile 2, an historical "Old Schoolhouse," several trailheads leading off of the single main road, an airstrip which was behind trees, and several passes aside the river which is a nice mountain stream, green with glacial till.  We arrived rather hot and sweaty.  Fortunately, the cabin has AC which was very welcome.  It is quite nice, large with a bath, bedroom, kitchen and sitting area on the first floor and a TV room  and  another guest room and bath upstairs.  There is also a screened porch.  There is one main house and a small other cabin on the property.  We crashed quickly to cool off, Betsy read and I began the blogging.  We will tour the site more after recovering from the bike ride and include some photos.

Our accommodation for the next 4 nights.

Our cabin across the creek and through the woods.

The "compound" -- the guest cabin is second from the right.

Our cabin again.

Bath.

Bedroom.

Kitchen.

Upstairs TV room, with two twin beds and another bath behind me.

Sitting area inside.

Sun or screened porch and Betsy.

Horse corral; chickens beyond (we have been given a dozen fresh eggs by Jeanetta).

Two, new 2-year olds who are receiving ground training; they are not yet being ridden.

Jeanetta's speciality and interests -- Norwegian Fjords.

North Cascades Trip - Day 1 & 2

Friday August 29 and Saturday August 30 -- Our next driving and camping vacation begins in "Blue" states....

Yesterday, we left our home in Portland mid-morning and drove to our first of two spots for the day, Stevenson WA.  We stopped there to visit with Brent Mahan, for two reasons -- first to see his new shed roof that he built from ten metal roof panels we had leftover from our Sisters' home new addition.  We weren't going to use them for anything as useful at the Sisters' house and since we paid for them I claimed them.  Brent did a nice job figuring out how to clamp them together (i.e,. a standing seam) and for attaching them to the substructure.  Our second reason for visiting was to see his new DJA drone.  He has been learning how to fly and having fun with it.  He is also very willing to have others try flying it.  So, after putting it in "Beginner" mode, donning a headset viewer and a one-handed controller or stick, I lifted off.  I could see what the drone saw and was able to control it, somewhat, with the "stick."  I flew for a few minutes using 1/2 of the battery charge and managed to bring it home and land it safely on his outdoor fireplace cover.  It was fun but requires a bit more practice to get comfortable.

After a very nice lunch of gazpacho with four toppings (egg, olives, bacon and onion confit), we drove further to Yakima.  We passed up and over a ridge and dropped into the valley, first passing through Toppenish, home city for the Yakama Indian Nation, and then onto the Yakima Sportsman State Park, just across the Yakima River from downtown Yakima. We set up our tent, cycled around the park (total distance 2 miles - whoopee...) and then drove into town for dinner.  There were lots of Mexican themed restaurants and we ate at El Asadero (The Grill), though it had a windmill on the roof (?).  Betsy had fish tacos, and I had tostida mixa - soap of shrimp, tomato, cucumber, red onion and "fire" served with chips.  Betsy then treated us both to ice cream cones; we watched the sunset while licking our choice cones and trying to cool down.

The overlook at the Yakima Sportsman State Park (a park with limited attractions - although set on the Yakima River, there was no river access).

We slept okay on the ground after it cooled down and fortunately we were near the restrooms.  The campground was noisy with late arriving campers and nearby highway traffic.  But we managed okay.

Saturday morning, we were up and had an efficient breakfast of fruit and granola with hot tea (boiled very quickly using the JetBoil stove).  Betsy packed up the camping stuff while I fixed the breakfast.  We were on the road north toward Chelan by 9:40 am.  We arrived in Cle Elum, (and briefly Roslyn) in search of a cafe and bike repair.  We had a nice break at the Pioneer Cafe and Bakery.  Note, I discovered I had a flat front tire on my bike this morning, hence the search for bike repair services.  We went on toward Wenatchee, but detoured into Cashmere at Betsy's request.  It was a pleasant looking town with well kept bungalows and is the home of Applets and Cotlets.  We found the headquarters, sampled the wares, and purchased a few gift boxes.  We then drove along the Columbia River up to Chelan.

We arrived in Chelan and the Riverwalk Inn (our overnight accommodation) at 2:30 pm.  There weren't any nearby bike shops, so I immediately went to work on repairing my flat tire.  I found a hole in the tube and was able to patch it without much trouble.  While I did the flat repair, Betsy spent time organizing the food for tomorrow for our ferry ride to Stehekin, at the north end of Lake Chelan.  We have to bring all of our supplies for the meals we will prepare for ourselves for the next 3+ days.

 

Our room at the Riverwalk Inn

We then wandered around town seeing the many Labor Day weekend tourists and bathers - lots of SUPs, and other inflatable floatees -getting in their final summer kicks.  We walked to the Lakeshore RV Park, then back to the lakefront completing the Chelan Riverwalk Loop (2.8 miles).  Chelan reminded us of several other inland lakeside resort towns - Okanogan BC, Lake Shasta, CA and Queenstown, New Zealand - long pools of water surrounded by dry-looking hills.  The altitude here is only 1125 feet elevation.  We retired to the Stormy Mountain Brewing where we had beer/cider and a very nice pretzel.  I wrote the most of this blog post while Betsy was watching and researching the Seattle Mariners game against Cleveland Guardians.